Generally, brushing, flossing and rinsing with mouthwash have been standard methods utilized to eliminate oral bacteria and bad breath. According to studies, however, bacteria on the surface of the tongue can cause up to 75% of bad breath odor. As such, numerous devices have been conceived to try to remove bacterial growth on the surface of the tongue, none of which has been particularly effective.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,817,114 to Anderson et al. discloses a tongue cleaner which includes a support member pre-shaped to fit snugly within the roof area of a user's mouth. Rather than the tongue cleaner having a periphery which fits within the roof of a user's mouth, the device disclosed in Anderson et al. includes recesses for receiving a user's teeth or, if the user has no teeth, a user's gums.
The tongue cleaner disclosed in Anderson et al. suffers from a number of disadvantages. As can be appreciated from the drawings, the device is relatively complex, costly to manufacture, and therefore not conducive to disposable use. In addition, the pre-shaped nature of the support member and the recesses for receiving a user's teeth or gums would require more than one universal style and size which could be used by all users. At the very least, one style is required for those having teeth and another for those without teeth. Moreover, although the Anderson et al. reference specifically attempts to provide a device which avoids causing a user to gag during tongue cleaning, the large size of the disclosed device may indeed lead to gagging in many users.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,967,152 and 6,015,293 to Rimkus disclose a tongue cleaning apparatus including an elongated handle having a solution storage cavity therein, an attachment utensil partially stored in the cavity, and a head component. The head component includes cleaning surfaces which may take the form of a plurality of hooks such as those found on the hook side of Velcro® hook and loop fasteners (FIG. 1) or a plurality of loops such as those found on the loop side of Velcro® hook and loop fasteners (FIG. 5).
Like the tongue cleaner disclosed in Anderson et al., the tongue cleaning apparatus disclosed in the Rimkus patents suffers from a number of disadvantages. One of such disadvantages is that the head component is rigid and relatively large, and is therefore uncomfortable and may promote gagging. Another disadvantage is that, although the Rimkus patents state that the cleaning apparatus disclosed therein is disposable, the apparatus is extremely complex, expensive to produce, and not readily disposable. Even the head portion, which is detachable from the rest of the apparatus, is complex and would not be readily disposable.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,943,592 to Bhaskar et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,938,673 to DePierro et al. both disclose tongue cleaning devices which include a flat, elongated member, such as a tongue depressor. Although the members may be bent at some location along their lengths, they are otherwise rigidly formed from wood or a molded plastic. The Bhaskar et al. device includes a brush portion comprised of hooks such as those found on the hook side of Velcro® hook and loop fasteners. The DePierro et al. device includes a brush portion made up of a plurality of flexible multifilament yarn bundles which form a loop pile.
The tongue cleaning devices disclosed in the Bhaskar et al. and DePierro et al. patents suffer from a number of disadvantages. One of such disadvantages is that the head component is rigid and cannot be contoured to the roof of the user's mouth. Such devices require the user to protrude his or her tongue and then brush the device over the tongue. This action will typically elicit a gagging reflex in a large number of users. Moreover, because the device does not conform to the user's tongue during use, pressure is not evenly distributed across the tongue, and cleaning may not evenly occur at all desired locations.
What is desired, therefore, is a tongue cleaning device which is relatively small and has a periphery which fits within the roof of a user's mouth, which is relatively simple in design and not costly to manufacture, and therefore conducive to disposable use, which may be used by a number of users having varying mouth sizes, which is flexible and can be contoured to the roof of the user's mouth, which can be contoured to the user's tongue during use, thus evenly distributing pressure across the tongue and promoting even cleaning at all desired tongue locations, and which avoids causing a user to gag during tongue cleaning.